The Princess (part 1) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCD EFGHIJKLEMBNOPQOORSO TOUOOVWVXYZA2OVB2C2 VOD2E2VOF2G2H2V VOOOVVI2 OJ2VVK2F2L2VC2F2 HOTM2C2G2VVHOF2V N2F2O2V P2V VQ2VVOB2VA2OO R2VVVOVOVVS2OOT OVOF2OG2VT2OOXVVF2U2 OXKV2W2VVVE2VX2OOS2V 2OOJ2Y2HF2XF2L2OF2I2 VOVF2O TF2OOVVVZ2Q2A3OVOT VVOQHA prince I was blue eyed and fair in face | A |
Of temper amorous as the first of May | B |
With lengths of yellow ringlet like a girl | C |
For on my cradle shone the Northern star | D |
- | |
There lived an ancient legend in our house | E |
Some sorcerer whom a far off grandsire burnt | F |
Because he cast no shadow had foretold | G |
Dying that none of all our blood should know | H |
The shadow from the substance and that one | I |
Should come to fight with shadows and to fall | J |
For so my mother said the story ran | K |
And truly waking dreams were more or less | L |
An old and strange affection of the house | E |
Myself too had weird seizures Heaven knows what | M |
On a sudden in the midst of men and day | B |
And while I walked and talked as heretofore | N |
I seemed to move among a world of ghosts | O |
And feel myself the shadow of a dream | P |
Our great court Galen poised his gilt head cane | Q |
And pawed his beard and muttered 'catalepsy' | O |
My mother pitying made a thousand prayers | O |
My mother was as mild as any saint | R |
Half canonized by all that looked on her | S |
So gracious was her tact and tenderness | O |
But my good father thought a king a king | T |
He cared not for the affection of the house | O |
He held his sceptre like a pedant's wand | U |
To lash offence and with long arms and hands | O |
Reached out and picked offenders from the mass | O |
For judgment | V |
Now it chanced that I had been | W |
While life was yet in bud and blade bethrothed | V |
To one a neighbouring Princess she to me | X |
Was proxy wedded with a bootless calf | Y |
At eight years old and still from time to time | Z |
Came murmurs of her beauty from the South | A2 |
And of her brethren youths of puissance | O |
And still I wore her picture by my heart | V |
And one dark tress and all around them both | B2 |
Sweet thoughts would swarm as bees about their queen | C2 |
- | |
But when the days drew nigh that I should wed | V |
My father sent ambassadors with furs | O |
And jewels gifts to fetch her these brought back | D2 |
A present a great labour of the loom | E2 |
And therewithal an answer vague as wind | V |
Besides they saw the king he took the gifts | O |
He said there was a compact that was true | F2 |
But then she had a will was he to blame | G2 |
And maiden fancies loved to live alone | H2 |
Among her women certain would not wed | V |
- | |
That morning in the presence room I stood | V |
With Cyril and with Florian my two friends | O |
The first a gentleman of broken means | O |
His father's fault but given to starts and bursts | O |
Of revel and the last my other heart | V |
And almost my half self for still we moved | V |
Together twinned as horse's ear and eye | I2 |
- | |
Now while they spake I saw my father's face | O |
Grow long and troubled like a rising moon | J2 |
Inflamed with wrath he started on his feet | V |
Tore the king's letter snowed it down and rent | V |
The wonder of the loom through warp and woof | K2 |
From skirt to skirt and at the last he sware | F2 |
That he would send a hundred thousand men | L2 |
And bring her in a whirlwind then he chewed | V |
The thrice turned cud of wrath and cooked his spleen | C2 |
Communing with his captains of the war | F2 |
- | |
At last I spoke 'My father let me go | H |
It cannot be but some gross error lies | O |
In this report this answer of a king | T |
Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable | M2 |
Or maybe I myself my bride once seen | C2 |
Whate'er my grief to find her less than fame | G2 |
May rue the bargain made ' And Florian said | V |
'I have a sister at the foreign court | V |
Who moves about the Princess she you know | H |
Who wedded with a nobleman from thence | O |
He dying lately left her as I hear | F2 |
The lady of three castles in that land | V |
Through her this matter might be sifted clean ' | - |
And Cyril whispered 'Take me with you too ' | - |
Then laughing 'what if these weird seizures come | N2 |
Upon you in those lands and no one near | F2 |
To point you out the shadow from the truth | O2 |
Take me I'll serve you better in a strait | V |
I grate on rusty hinges here ' but 'No ' | - |
Roared the rough king 'you shall not we ourself | P2 |
Will crush her pretty maiden fancies dead | V |
In iron gauntlets break the council up ' | - |
- | |
But when the council broke I rose and past | V |
Through the wild woods that hung about the town | Q2 |
Found a still place and plucked her likeness out | V |
Laid it on flowers and watched it lying bathed | V |
In the green gleam of dewy tasselled trees | O |
What were those fancies wherefore break her troth | B2 |
Proud looked the lips but while I meditated | V |
A wind arose and rushed upon the South | A2 |
And shook the songs the whispers and the shrieks | O |
Of the wild woods together and a Voice | O |
Went with it 'Follow follow thou shalt win ' | - |
- | |
Then ere the silver sickle of that month | R2 |
Became her golden shield I stole from court | V |
With Cyril and with Florian unperceived | V |
Cat footed through the town and half in dread | V |
To hear my father's clamour at our backs | O |
With Ho from some bay window shake the night | V |
But all was quiet from the bastioned walls | O |
Like threaded spiders one by one we dropt | V |
And flying reached the frontier then we crost | V |
To a livelier land and so by tilth and grange | S2 |
And vines and blowing bosks of wilderness | O |
We gained the mother city thick with towers | O |
And in the imperial palace found the king | T |
- | |
His name was Gama cracked and small his voice | O |
But bland the smile that like a wrinkling wind | V |
On glassy water drove his cheek in lines | O |
A little dry old man without a star | F2 |
Not like a king three days he feasted us | O |
And on the fourth I spake of why we came | G2 |
And my bethrothed 'You do us Prince ' he said | V |
Airing a snowy hand and signet gem | T2 |
'All honour We remember love ourselves | O |
In our sweet youth there did a compact pass | O |
Long summers back a kind of ceremony | X |
I think the year in which our olives failed | V |
I would you had her Prince with all my heart | V |
With my full heart but there were widows here | F2 |
Two widows Lady Psyche Lady Blanche | U2 |
They fed her theories in and out of place | O |
Maintaining that with equal husbandry | X |
The woman were an equal to the man | K |
They harped on this with this our banquets rang | V2 |
Our dances broke and buzzed in knots of talk | W2 |
Nothing but this my very ears were hot | V |
To hear them knowledge so my daughter held | V |
Was all in all they had but been she thought | V |
As children they must lose the child assume | E2 |
The woman then Sir awful odes she wrote | V |
Too awful sure for what they treated of | X2 |
But all she is and does is awful odes | O |
About this losing of the child and rhymes | O |
And dismal lyrics prophesying change | S2 |
Beyond all reason these the women sang | V2 |
And they that know such things I sought but peace | O |
No critic I would call them masterpieces | O |
They mastered me At last she begged a boon | J2 |
A certain summer palace which I have | Y2 |
Hard by your father's frontier I said no | H |
Yet being an easy man gave it and there | F2 |
All wild to found an University | X |
For maidens on the spur she fled and more | F2 |
We know not only this they see no men | L2 |
Not even her brother Arac nor the twins | O |
Her brethren though they love her look upon her | F2 |
As on a kind of paragon and I | I2 |
Pardon me saying it were much loth to breed | V |
Dispute betwixt myself and mine but since | O |
And I confess with right you think me bound | V |
In some sort I can give you letters to her | F2 |
And yet to speak the truth I rate your chance | O |
Almost at naked nothing ' | - |
Thus the king | T |
And I though nettled that he seemed to slur | F2 |
With garrulous ease and oily courtesies | O |
Our formal compact yet not less all frets | O |
But chafing me on fire to find my bride | V |
Went forth again with both my friends We rode | V |
Many a long league back to the North At last | V |
From hills that looked across a land of hope | Z2 |
We dropt with evening on a rustic town | Q2 |
Set in a gleaming river's crescent curve | A3 |
Close at the boundary of the liberties | O |
There entered an old hostel called mine host | V |
To council plied him with his richest wines | O |
And showed the late writ letters of the king | T |
- | |
He with a long low sibilation stared | V |
As blank as death in marble then exclaimed | V |
Averring it was clear against all rules | O |
For any man to go but as his brain | Q |
Began to mello | H |
Alfred Lord Tennyson
(1)
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